jimski2

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/fishing/story/733933.html

Somewhere, I think the 60 MPH winds and 17 foot seas had a lot to do with it.

The boat that flipped over in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of three lives, had a solid T Top with a Radar mounted on top. Whether that structure with its weight, height and sail area caused that incident to happen is open to speculation, but I would be checking the added structure and how it affects your stability in high winds.

Your bimini top has instructions to not tow it over 30 MPH. When it blows down, you have to buy new bars. I know. I even take mine down in high winds now and keep the boat throttled down when going into the wind.

Your VHF radio sends out a 25 watt signal. 12 volts with 2+amps draw. Most radios recomend a 10 Gauge wire from the battery to the radio, otherwise your radio will put out a weak signal.

I listened the Customs and Homeland Security guys at a meeting last night. If you go into Canadian waters and expect to return to USA, you will need enhanced security ID for everyone on board your vessel after June 1, 2009. Passports, passport cards, enhanced driver's license, NEXUS card, etc. If your boat is over 30 feet long, you will need a permit. There are so many hoops they want you to jump through, it is almost impossible. Another freedom to travel is gone. Your children over 16 need enhanced security, it is free but you need to take a day off of work, make an appointment, take the kid out of school and be there at their convenience. Children under 16 need a birth certificate only. Even with all the ID, you just can not go home, you have to go to the on camera phone and report in to them and remember an 18 digit number to show you reported in. If you stop in Canadian waters, like to pull up a snag, you fall into this trap. I would suggest that you keep your GPS tracking on to indicate you stayed out of Canadian waters. With all this, you may not have to buy a Canadian fishing license.

A friend of Mine "won the boat" "FIRST PRIZE" one year. He got hit with the income taxes on the list price of the boat. His teammates? wanted their share of the prize. He asked them to come up with their share of the income taxes, he would sell the boat for what they could get, and then split up the proceeds. Needless to say, no one came up with the income taxes, the boat sold for 50 cents on the dollar on the list price and to this day six guys do not talk to each other. The hardest part was the loss of the friendship for all of them. You can win the contest, but do not get your friends involved and clearly understand all the consequences if you do win. It is best to allow the guy who catches the winner keep the prize and let him deal with the taxes.

You may remove the gills and entrails, bleed them down and place them on ice, but the heads and tails must be there for the law enforcement guys to do their job.

I used the Mag 10's for twenty years and the only thing I replaced was the cords.

This is a PA stream on Lake Erie. Stream fishing is great now here on the Lake Erie Tribs.Sunday my nephew landed 25 steelhead between dawn and 11:00 AM on a nearby "creek" using a black jig with a piece of worm.

Be advised you may need enhanced ID to return to the USA waters, that is the way it is now. Also do not anchor in Canadian waters, it could bring up problems also. The St. Catherines Game and Fish Club operates a good launch at Port Dahlousie on the East side of the canal. Be advised when you bring your boat into Canada you may need to cleared.

When you go west of the Niagara River, steer clear offshore of the rifle range. They have buoys out there.

If you trailer your boat and keep it out of the water is simple. If you leave the boat at a dock, there are a lot of things like Phosphoric primer, primer and finish coats. Stripping the old paint, sandblasting welds, electrolysis, etc. Or simply, is there any rust?

http://web-fisherman.com/

I have a 9.9 high thrust, power trim and tile, remote control Honda on my 18 foot Crestliner. It is fine for trolling and it powers the boat at full throttle to 6 MPH, which can get me back fine. There is a special throttle control sold by Cabela's that can give finer speeed control but I have not needed it yet. When trolling, you still need the main motor in the water for steering control.

Do not be afraid to troll rapalas in the brown water. The brown water is on top of the water column and under it is clear water where the fish hide and wait for bait that are congregating in the warmer waters that flow out to the lake from roadside ditches, streams and creeks. A surface temperature gauge reading in the mid 40's is what will tell you where you need to be. Do not longline, use in-line planers or side planers to get the fish that shy away from your boat, but then congregate in groups away from your boats path. Rapalas will float up when you stop or turn so as to avoid snags on the bottom. The best sign is when you catch a fish, turn around and go back, there are more in that area. The best waters for spring browns are inside 15 feet of water.

Early spring fishing, with all the Lake Erie ice cooled waters flowing from the river, the best fishing is west of Port Dahlousie, where the warmest waters start. The Hamilton Steel Mills are down now, but the 3 million people in the Toronto Metro area warm up those waters fast.

Maybe we could have an ATTABOY AWARD for the first locally caught salmon picture posted this spring.

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/fishing/story/716911.html

With a 12 volt DC / 110 volt AC inverter, [3 types?], I can charge the battery and power up my laptop on the boat. With a Sprint USB device, $60 a month, + taxes, or $800+ a year,I can connect to the internet, and the GPS will locate you with a CD Lake Map? Things are starting to get out of control, maybe I should just get a chartplotter?

Does anyone out there know of a way to connect a small gps or fishfinder to a laptop so as to have a big screen view at a cheap price? I think there may be a "cable" available that could make this happen.

My golf costs are club membership, $3100, clubs, shoe, clothes and balls, $500 annually, gas to and from the club and other courses,$600, and other miscellaneous, $300. That is why I have to fishing more often, the golf is getting into my fishing money.

The VHS rules willhave you searching for certified bait now.

Yes, you are right, it came out bad. After a couple trips to Lake Simcoe and what it used to be and is now, I sort of lost it. I think if trained professional biologists with years of experience on the waters under their care wanted a change in the catch limits. it would be perfectly acceptable. Another thing that bothers me is the regulations are so rigid that it takes years and hearings to make changes. The regulations should be changed when and as needed to correct conditions. Just because they only change the regulation book every couple years so then they can change things then is not very responsive to conditions that could change over night.

Perch are too prolific to need a size limit or a maximum number of keepers. They need to be harvested otherwise your waters biomass will become infested with undersized and stunted perch and panfish. The recruitment of walleye, bass, etc. ends when the unharvested perch numbers remove by consuming all the fry and fingerlings that the other fish produce. The growth rates of the perch mass increase when you cull down the too many perch in a lake. Let the professional biologists suggest regulations, not pressure from a disgruntled fisherman wannabe and his followers.